Cressida decided to save a part of her income in a savings account that compounds interest every four months. her account balance after t years can be given by the following expression.

3,545(1.045)^3t

what does the value 3 in the exponent represent?

a.
the growth factor that reveals the rate at which the account balance increases
b.
the number of times the account compounds interest
c.
the initial amount invested
d.
the amount saved each year